Ask the Right Questions
Before You Agree to Exhibit

ach year, emerging craft artists and experienced exhibitors face the same daunting challenge of applying to shows in new locales. How do you pick the best shows for you and your work when there are literally thousands of art and craft shows, fairs and festivals from which to choose? Just as when you started your crafts business, you have to do market research and find out what others in this field are doing and how their sales experience can be applied to selling your work.

There’s no way to bypass this process or to make it simpler. You have to ask a lot of questions and analyze the answers. Every crafts business owner can tell you “war stories” of his or her own first shows. Bill Ronay, the publisher of The Ronay Guides to shows in the South, recalls a couple of early, disastrous shows he did on a boardwalk at the beach and a horse racing festival. “I found out that people don’t carry much money in their bikinis,” he recalls, “and [the craft exhibitors] ended up in the parking lot a half mile from the track at the horse racing festival.”

As seen by these examples, it’s not enough to know where a show is taking place. You also need to know the potential buyers and the economy in that area. Is it based on mining, manufacturing or technology? Is it near a military base? Are the residents mostly blue collar or white-collar workers?

Also, are the potential buyers coming because they are looking for craft works? Is the craft show the main focus, or has it just been thrown in as an added attraction? Doug Hawkins, publisher of Show West, a guide to arts and crafts festivals in the Southwest, notes that craft exhibitors at an ostrich festival perennially do poorly because people go there to see the ostrich races. “Yet, every year, a whole new bunch of exhibitors enter this show,” says Hawkins. “They don’t ask the right questions.”

Illustration by Larry Knox

Most artisans find shows by subscribing to show periodicals like Ronay’s or Show West or craft publications such as The Crafts Report with show listings in the magazine and online at www.craftsreport.com. And each year, more craft shows and festivals are marketing their events and putting their information online. Even regional, locally produced craft shows have Web sites with downloadable applications. Obtain an application packet or prospectus for every event in which you have even a remote interest. This will provide a broad perspective on shows in general and tell you what promoters expect.

Create a master list of questions to always ask before doing a show. Look for the common rules and regulations at different shows. If you don’t find answers to all your questions, contact the show promoter for more details.

Often, the best show information comes from networking with other sellers at a show. “I’ve found most craftspeople will share this kind of information,” says polymer clay artist Jacqueline Janes. “I usually network first with people who aren’t working in my [medium]. Anytime several people say the same thing about the same show, I figure that event has good potential for me.”

Janes cautions, however, that a show that is successful for a friend will not necessarily be successful for you. “You must still pay attention to matching your product to the marketplace, and look for shows that attract the kind of buyers you need,” she says.

Be suspicious of any show promoter who comes to you with an offer of space in a show you didn’t contact. The promoter may simply be trying to fill up a show at the last minute due to cancellations. A jewelry maker tells about a show promoter who took one of her cards at a high-end show, then later contacted her saying she was “automatically juried into his show.” Other artisans he’d found the same way were told that his show would be “a handcrafted show,” but it turned out to be a show with about 50 food booths, many commercial vendors and nothing but country crafts. “Ninety percent of us barely made our booth space,” says the jeweler. “There were customers, but the promoters had marketed the show to a very low-end crowd.”

Sellers might avoid poorly attended and poorly directed shows if they ask the promoters the following questions before they decide to exhibit:

• What is your definition of “handcrafted”?
• Is anything else being sold at this show besides art or crafts?
• What other shows have you done (type and location)?
• How long has this particular show been held?
• If it is a repeat show, is the committee who runs it entirely new or is the same staff running the show? If not, does anyone at this year’s show remember how it was run last year?
• How many vendors return each year?
• Do you think my products are a good fit for your show?
• How many exhibitors are now signed?
• How many exhibitors are returning from previous years and what’s the average length of years they have been exhibiting?
• How many exhibitors are there in my art/craft medium?
• How and where is the show being
advertised?
• What is the expected attendance? (If it is a first-year show, ask how the figure is derived.)

If the event is a large festival, Ronay suggests that you also ask if the event sponsors are members of a networking group such as the International Festivals & Events Association, or a state group akin to his state’s Fairs & Festivals Council of the Georgia Hospitality & Travel Association. “Shows work like any other business,” he says. “They have publicity connections and sponsors, and they are always looking for new ways to bring visitors to the events.”

The crafts show industry is not without its problems, but bad shows can be avoided if you do your homework and ask the right questions. “There are too many good shows out there to put up with second best,” says Ronay. “Pick and choose from the best, stick by your values, and work for what you want to achieve.”

This column is adapted from previous issues of The Crafts Report.